If you remember what kind of calendar we used before the present Thai solar calendar, you will know that we used lunar calendar. In order to tell the date at that time, we just followed the moon whether it was waxing, ขึ้น /kêun/ or waning, แรม /raem/. For example: แรม ๑๕ ค่ำ เดือน ๘ /raem 15 kâm deuan 8/ means ‘waning of the 15th Night of the 8th Lunar Month’. In case some or you might not know ค่ำ /kâm/ means night or nighttime.

However, we received the idea about 7 days of the week and the colors of each day from Hindus.

วันอาทิตย์ /wan-aa-tíd/, Sunday, is the first day of the week. It came from Sanskrit word ‘อาทตย’ means the sun. Red is the color of Sunday because Lord Surya, the Hindu god of the Sun, has red skin.

วันจันทร์ /wan-jan/, Monday, is the second of the week. Sanskrit word ‘จนทร’ referred to the moon. Lord Chandra, Moon God, has yellow skin, thus yellow is the color of Monday.

วันอังคาร /wan-ang-kaan/, Tuesday, the third day of the week. Although the Sanskrit root of ‘องคาร’ meant an ember or a charcoal, Lord Mangala, aka Lohit (meaning red), rules the day. His is the god of war and red is his color. Nevertheless, the color of the day in Thailand is pink. This day is also represented as The Mars.

วันพุธ /wan-púd/, Wednesday, a Sanskrit word, indicates connoisseur, pundit, expert. Can you guess which planet is พุธ /púd/? Right, it is Mercury. Wednesday is dedicated to Lord Vithal, an incarnation of Krishna and leaf green color represents the day.

วันพฤหัสบดี /wan-pá-réu-hàd-sà-bor-dee/, Thursday, the fifth day of the week. Its root ‘วฤหสปติ’ means god who is the teacher of all angels and therefore Thursday is assigned to Vishnu and Brihaspati, the Guru of Devas. The word also refers to the fifth giant planet from the sun. Yes, I mean Jupiter. Reddish yellow is the color of Thursday in Thailand.

วันศุกร์ /wan-sùg/, Friday, or ‘ศุกร’ in Sanskrit denotes merit or bright. Friday is devoted to Mother Goddess ‘Shakti’ and Shukra or Venus. In Thai, we call Venus ‘ศุกร์’ /sùg/ as well.

วันเสาร์ /wan-sao/, Saturday, ‘เสาร’ doesn’t only represent heaven in Sanskrit but also indicates Saturn when we talk about planet. In Hinduism, Saturday is reverent to Lord Shani. Owning to his black skin, black is the color of the day in Hindu belief. However, in Thailand, it is dark purple not black.

Thais do know not only when their birthday is but also which day is their birthday. And you? Do you know which day is yours?

ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jeen/ is one kind of noodles, made from rice flour, in Thailand. In the northern part, it is called ‘ขนมเส้น’ /kà-nŏm-sên/. Esan people call it ‘ข้าวปุ้น’ /kâaw-bpûn/ and it is known as ‘โหน้มจีน’ /nóm-jeen/ in the southern part.

ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jee/ has a ridiculous name because it’s totally not ขนม /kà-nŏm/ in Thai people’s eyes and it’s not from China if you must know.

What is ขนม /kà-nŏm/?

If you look it up, you will see meanings such as sweets, dessert, candy, etc. Actually, the definition of ขนม /kà-nŏm/ is a lot wider than that. We count snacks, such as potato chips, French fried, biscuits, dried fruits, nuts & seeds, etc. as ขนม /kà-nŏm/. With this range, ขนม /kà-nŏm/ can be sweet, sour, salty, even spicy. Thai people especially girls love having it any time.

When a student asks me what ขนม /kà-nŏm/ is, I always answer simply “It’s something that you enjoy eating. Normally it’s not healthy. It can’t really make your stomach full but it tastes soooooo good!” LOL

If ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jee/ didn’t come from China, where was it from?

It was originally Mon food from Burma. The word ‘ขนมจีน’ /kà-nŏm-jeen/ was from ‘ขฺนํจินฺ’, คะนอมจีน /ká-nom-jeen/, ‘คะนอม’/ká-nom/ means noodles and ‘จีน’/jeen/ means be cooked.

Thai people love having ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jee/ with various soup or curry. They like to eat fresh vegetables together with it. Some people like me also love having it with ส้มตำ /sôm-dtam/, aka Thai green papaya salad.

Surprisingly, ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jee/ provides less calories than other rice noodles and glass noodles. So, let’s eat ขนมจีน /kà-nŏm-jee/ if you are on a diat. LOL

If you’d like to learn how to read and write Thai, normally you will start with alphabets, right?

In Thai language, there are 44 consonant letters. It’s funny because there are 2 characters which we don’t use anymore, but we still count them as part of our alphabets. Any ideas?

Right, I’m talking about ฃ and ฅ.

So, when did ฃ and ฅ be created and for what reason?

For the first question, we have got evidence from the King Ramkhamhaeng Insription, aka Ram Khamhaeng Stele (composed in 1292), that we did have these two letters starting from the beginning.

Referring to the inscription, you could find some examples of ฃ and ฅ, such as ฃึ้น, ฃุน, ฃาม, ฅำ, ฅู้ม, ฅวาม etc. and these two still be used until Rattanakosin Era (1782 – present).

ฃ and ฅ were left from the writing system firstly when the first Thai typewriter was developed by Edwin Hunter McFarland in 1892. Why? No space for all letters!

Although these two were still be used popularly in King Vajiravudh’s reign (1910 – 1925), their usage became less and less after that until there were only one word of each left: เฃตร and ฅอ.

When Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, locally known as Chomphon Por; contemporarily known as Phibun in the West, served as the Prime Minister of Thailand (1948 – 1957), many consonant letters and vowels were eliminated from the writing system. Of course, ฃ and ฅ were included.

The others consonants have resumed their usage after Chomphon Por’s period of time but not these two consonants.

So, we are back to the second question. If they were not that important why did we have them?

From many of Thai specialists’ assumptions, they do believe that at the beginning, ฃ and ฅ must represent different sounds from ข and ค respectively but nobody really knows which sounds exactly.

ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ is a loanword from a Chinese dialect. ก๋วย /gŭay/ means flour or fruit/part of fruit. เตี๋ยว /dtiăw/ means lines. When we combine them together, it means lines made from flour. Normally, ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ is made from rice flour.

We believe that ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ came to Thailand in the reign of King Narai the Great; the king of Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688. After the World War II, rice was in short supply and its price was higher. Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhra, the leader at that time, tried to promote ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ as a lunch meal. Eating and selling noodles at that time was a strategy to drive the economy of the country. It has become so popular in Thailand since then.

Due to the nationalistic campaign at that time, the leader did not want ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ to have an image of China. That’s why, Pad Thai was born. In order to differentiate Pad Thai from Chinese noodles, the authentic Pad Thai must not have pork as an ingredient. They believed that pork was the food for Chinese people. The noodles used in Pad Thai must be stickier than the common rice noodles. Adding sprout beans in ก๋วยเตี๋ยว /gŭay-dtiăw/ and Pad Thai is also firstly recommended at that time.

Nowadays Pad Thai becomes one of the icons of Thai food even if it is made of noodles.

Because the Valentine ’s Day is coming, let’s talk about how to express your appreciation and your love to others. Actually, there are many nice terms to say that you are happy to be with someone in Thai language.

ถูกชะตา /tòog-chà-dtaa/ = to click, to hit it off

ฉัน/ผม ถูกชะตา กับ คุณ มาก

chán/pŏm tòog-chà-dtaa gàb kun mâag

I really clicked with you.

We usually use this expression when we meet someone new. ถูกชะตา /tòog-chà-dtaa/ is a feeling when you get along with that person very well even if you are not so close to each other.

ปลื้ม /bplêum/ = to admire, to be in awe of

เขา ปลื้ม Kendall มา นาน แล้ว

káo bplêum Kendall maa naan láew

He has admired Kendall for a long time.

Normally, if you use this word with a celebrity such as a superstar, an author, a sport athlete, etc, it means that you are a big fan. If we use this word with someone who you know in person, it means that you have a crush on him/her.

ชื่นชม /chêun-chom/ = to admire

ฉัน/ผม ชื่นชม คุณ มาก

chán/pŏm chêun-chom kun mâag

I admire you very much.

This word seems similar with ปลื้ม /bplêum/ but they are not the same. ปลื้ม /bplêum/ is usually used by teenagers or young adults. You might ปลื้ม /bplêum/ someone without any reasons. When we say that we ชื่นชม /chêun-chom/ someone, it refers to his/her attribute or characteristic. What’s more, we hardly use this word to imply anything in romantic way. All in all, this word sounds more sophisticated and formal than ปลื้ม /bplêum/.

รัก /rág/ = to love

ฉัน/ผม รัก คุณ

chán/pŏm rág kun

I love you.

Although I can’t explain much about love because “love is like ghosts”, I don’t think that we can complete this article without this sentence. lol

If you speak Thai, I’m pretty certain that you know this word บาง /bāang/ at least you might know it as a part of a word “Bangkok” in English or บางกอก in Thai, บางครั้ง /bāang-kráng/, meaning ‘sometimes’, or บางคน /bāang-kōn/, meaning ‘some people’.

Actually, this word has many meanings but we can talk about the most common one first.

บาง /bāang/ (Det.) some

We don’t use บาง /bāang/ alone for this meaning. The structure of this word is

Noun + บาง /bāang/ + Classifier

We can omit noun before บาง /bāang/ if that noun and its classifier are exactly the same or if we do know which noun we are talking about. However, it’s impossible to use this word without a classifier.

For example: คน /kōn/ can be a noun meaning a person or people. It’s also a classifier for any nouns referring to human beings in general. In this case, we don’t have to say it twice as คนบางคน /kōn- bāang-kōn/. That’s why you might hear people say บางคน /bāang-kōn/.

บางคน ไม่ กิน เผ็ด

/bāang-kōn mâi gīn pèd/

Some people don’t eat spicy (food).

Anyway, if you would like to say “Some Thai people don’t eat spicy (food)”, you can’t omit noun anymore.

คนไทย บางคน ไม่ กิน เผ็ด

/kōn Thai bāang-kōn mâi gīn pèd/

บาง /bāang/ (Adj.) thin

We can also use this word to modify nouns. In this sense, its opposite word is ‘หนา’ /năa/, meaning ‘thick’.

สมุด เล่ม นี้ บาง มาก

/sà-mùd lêm née bāang mâag/

This notebook is very thin.

บาง /bāang/ (N.) a small stream

Have you ever wonder why there are so many areas in Thailand which started their names with a word ‘บาง’ /bāang/? Even the name บางกอก /bāang-gòrg/, AKA Bangkok. If this word means only ‘some’ or ‘thin’, it sounds strange, right?

Actually, in the past, we called a small stream ‘บาง’ /bāang/. People couldn’t live without water. In the time when there was no water pipe, it made more sense to live close to a river or a stream. That’s how people named the areas.